This application claims priority to German patent application number 101 44 899.6 filed Sep. 12, 2001.
The invention relates to a vehicle roof.
A conventional vehicle roof comprises a roof opening, a cover which can be raised and which is provided for closing the roof opening, a cover liner which can be positioned underneath the cover, and a linkage between the cover and the cover liner, by which the cover and the cover liner can be coupled to each other during raising the cover and by which a rear edge of the cover liner is lifted during raising the cover. The linkage has a drag lever which swivels during raising the cover. The drag lever is supported in a swivel bearing on the side of the vehicle roof and has a first bearing for connection with the cover as well as a second bearing for connection with the cover liner.
Such a vehicle roof is known from German Utility Model 87 03 996. In this vehicle roof the drag lever is a two-armed lever which is connected at one end with the cover liner and at the other end with a tension spring that is supported on the side of the vehicle roof. A bearing lever which is mounted to the cover engages between the ends of the two-armed lever. During raising the cover, also the rear edge of the cover liner is entrained via the linkage. During raising, the linkage is folded so as to be flat whereby it is effected that the cover liner is raised to a greater extent than the cover itself, and a large ventilation opening at the rear edge of the cover and the cover liner is achieved in the raised state. A similar vehicle roof is known from DE 198 58 676 A1.
The invention provides a vehicle roof in which the linkage is made very compact and has small dimensions, above all in the longitudinal extension; nevertheless, a large raising angle is made possible both for the cover and the cover liner.
According to the invention, a vehicle roof comprises a roof opening, a cover which can be raised and which is provided for closing the roof opening, and a cover liner which can be positioned underneath the cover. The vehicle roof further comprises a linkage between the cover and the cover liner, by which the cover and the cover liner can be coupled to each other during raising the cover and by which a rear edge of the cover liner is lifted during raising the cover. The linkage has a drag lever which swivels during raising the cover. The drag lever is supported in a swivel bearing on the side of the vehicle roof and has a first bearing for connection with the cover as well as a second bearing for connection with the cover liner. The swivel bearing on the side of the vehicle roof and in the raised state of the cover lies underneath the first bearing for connection with the cover and is mounted to a guide by means of which the swivel bearing on the side of the vehicle roof is moved upwards during raising the cover. In the vehicle roof according to the invention, the drag lever is swiveled upwards such that the swivel bearing lies underneath the bearing to the cover. Due to the fact that the swivel bearing itself is not stationary, but for its part is moved upwards by means of the guide during the raising operation, the swivel displacement of the drag lever (which displacement is dependent on the length of the drag lever) and the displacement in height of its swivel bearing will sum upxe2x80x94for the extent of the raising motionxe2x80x94to give the overall raising extent of the rear edge of the cover. As compared with the linkage disclosed in DE 198 58 676 A1, in which the swivel bearing is rigidly mounted to a carriage that is not adjustable in height, the drag lever in the vehicle roof according to the invention can be configured shorter for achieving the same raising extent, so that the linkage becomes more compact all in all. The term xe2x80x9cunderneathxe2x80x9d states that the swivel bearing is not reaching the vertical level of the first bearing.
According to the preferred embodiment, there is provided a roof-fixed longitudinal guide for horizontally shifting the cover. Further, a movable carriage is provided guided in the longitudinal guide. In this arrangement, the guide is seated on the carriage and therefore is entrained during shifting the carriage. Usually, of course, there are mounted guides including carriages to both sides of the cover.
In the preferred embodiment the guide is a pivoting bearing lever, i.e. a simple and compact component.
The bearing lever can be, on the one hand, pivotally coupled to the carriage and, on the other, coupled to the drag lever through the swivel bearing. The swivel bearing travels upwards along a circular path during raising the cover. It is due to this lever arrangement that the working point of the force on the cover can be located relatively simple far to the rear; this having an advantageous effect on the lifting forces, because these can be kept small due to the lever conditions that can be optimized more easily.
Preferably in the vicinity of the second bearing for connection with the cover liner, the drag lever has a stop by means of which it rests on the longitudinal guide when the cover is not raised. This embodiment is advantageous for several reasons. First, the longitudinal guide is a component which is aligned very precisely and determines the location of the cover, so that it can optimally serve as a stop for the end position, too. Further, the cover liner will not perform any vertical motions or only negligible ones, if the cover is lowered for shifting backwards (horizontal shifting), in order to be able to be shifted under the roof skin. The stop itself actually is not lowered during this lowering motion, and the point of articulation to the drag lever lies close to the stop that does not follow the downward motion.
As already mentioned, the stop may rest on the longitudinal guide e.g. when the cover is not raised and may define the position of the drag lever at least in one way; it likewise being possible that the stop rests on the longitudinal guide when the roof opening is closed and/or the cover has been shifted in horizontal direction. Therefore, the stop may also serve as a sliding guide during moving back the cover.
In case the drag lever is coupled to the cover by means of a connecting lever, this connecting lever being pivotally mounted to the drag lever on the one hand and being pivotally mounted to the cover on the other hand, then there will preferably be produced a three-piece linkage with levers arranged in series, of which the drag lever forms the one in the middle. Through providing the connecting lever it is once more possible to optimize the lifting forces, in addition to prevent a distorting of the systems thanks to the enhanced degree of freedom, and to achieve the desired motions of cover and cover liner in an easier way.
It is particularly of advantage in this context if the drag lever extends substantially in horizontal direction when the roof opening is closed, one of its ends being engaged by a bearing lever which extends obliquely downwards, and the other of its ends being engaged by the connecting lever which extends obliquely upwards. With this arrangement, there will be achieved a compact position of the linkage virtually folded together; however, no dead center situations being provided, because the bearing lever and the connecting lever do not extend in parallelism with the drag lever, but obliquely relative to it. The already explained locations of the levers relative to each other in the closed position also make it possible to lower the cover at its rear edge during shifting backwards. For this lowering motion, in fact the connecting lever, which anyway has an oblique orientation, has to be swiveled. In so doing, the motion of the drag lever can be very small.
There is preferably provided a one-way stop (acting only in one direction) which is connected with the cover and defines an angular position of the connecting lever relative to the cover when the cover is being raised. This is intended to cause that the connecting point of drag lever and connecting lever is lifted directly, if the cover is being raised. Due to the stop, it is only admitted that, during raising the cover, the connecting lever performs a small swiveling motion or no swiveling motion at all.
In the reverse direction during lowering the cover, in particular during lowering the rear edge of the cover from the closed position for horizontally shifting, the one-way stop does not have an effect, i.e. it does not define the angular position of the connecting lever relative to the cover.
As a connection between the drag lever and the cover liner there is preferably provided a slotted guide by which a distortion of the whole system is avoided and by which additional functions can be realized in a simple manner, which are explained in the following.
The slotted guide is preferably mounted to the cover liner, with a guide pin arranged on the drag lever being able to be disengaged from the slotted guide when the cover liner is shifted horizontally. That is why pushing back of the cover liner is allowed in a simple way, in particular when the roof opening is closed.
According to one design the slotted guide is formed by a C-shaped plastics part which has a protrusion for stopping the guide pin; this plastics part, for the purpose of disengaging the guide pin from the slotted guide, being able to be elastically deformed in such a manner that the guide pin can travel past the protrusion. This protrusion defines a desired and specific position of the cover liner which, however, can be left by a desired higher effort.
The slotted guide may further have an ascending portion by means of which the rear edge of the cover liner is lifted out of the closed position at the start of the horizontally shifting. In this embodiment the slotted guide has an additional function, i.e. it controlling the optionally provided vertical shifting of the cover for exposing the roof opening.